Author: Jane Wybenga, Built Green Coordinator

While there are some limitations for renters that do not apply to homeowners, there are still a lot of actions that can contribute to living a budget-friendly, ecologically-conscience lifestyle. Since structural and large-scale changes are out of the question for rentals, we’ll focus on non-invasive, temporary, or easily reversible upgrades. These upgrades are important steps for reducing your carbon footprint and for the overall comfort of your home.

Energy Efficiency

One great way to increase the efficiency of your home is through energy-efficient lighting. The easiest and cheapest way to do this is by replacing standard lights with LED bulbs. LEDs conserve up to 80% more energy, last longer, and have no toxins compared to traditional lighting options. When getting rid of the old bulb, make sure you check what type you have; some bulbs need to be recycled and some cannot be thrown away, like halogens and florescent. To help dispose of old bulbs, many of the big box home improvement stores have collection bins that you can use. When it is time to replace the LED, make sure you recycle your old LED bulbs. Here is a great guide that outlines types of lightbulbs, and what to do with them at the end of their life. There should be a variety of options of LED bulbs at your local hardware store and they can also be ordered online. You can also visit the PSE Marketplace to purchase ENERGY STAR qualified LED light bulbs and fixtures and receive your PSE rebate instantly. While the upfront price may seem like the more expensive option, LEDs are less costly in the long run because they last about 10 times longer which means less money spent on replacing bulbs (and less waste!).

On the same topic of energy, smart thermostats are another good way to save in your home. Smart thermostats optimize the performance of your heating and cooling systems, minimize temperature fluctuations, and help save on your electricity bill. Check your lease, but depending on the situation, many times they can also be installed with or without approval from your landlord. Reducing energy waste from space heating reduces the strain on our electrical grid, reducing the risk of brown-outs, and conserves natural resources.

The first step is to assess your smart thermostat options for renters and landlords alike. If you need to talk with your landlord, be sure to mention the cost and energy savings of installing a smart thermostat.

Water Conservation

Using less water is another great way to make your rental home greener. It can save you money by reducing water use, while keeping the environment healthy by diverting less water from our rivers, bays, and estuaries. Running toilets, steady faucet drips, and home water treatment units are common sources of water-wasting leaks. Here are some accessible water-saving strategies:

• Install a Watersense low-flow showerhead, look for 1.75 gallons per minute (gpm) or less
• Some top suggestions
• Install faucet aerators
• A helpful guide to choosing the right one
• Work with your landlord to fix leaks. Use some food coloring to see if your toilet is leaking.

Don’t forget to store the existing showerhead so you can swap it back in and take your nicer showerhead with you when you move. Faucet aerators allow the water you do use to be more productive. When buying these products make sure to look for the Watersense label, that indicates the products meet EPA's specifications for water efficiency and performance, and are backed by independent, third-party certification.

Breathe Easier

Indoor air quality (IAQ) is an important aspect in a home, that has both environmental and health benefits. The indoor air quality in your home can be improved by controlling pollutants and allergens at their sources, improving ventilation, and finally using air cleaners. Most of these don’t require purchasing something, some are simple and routine maintenance practices so you can breathe easier in your home. Here are some action steps for achieving better IAQ:

• Wash metal range hood grease filter every 1-3 months (Here's how)
• Replace charcoal filters in range hood every 4-6 months depending on model. Typically, these are found in ductless/non-vented/recirculating range hoods
• If you have a heat recovery ventilator in your unit, ask your landlord about having its filter cleaned or replaced at least once a year
• Use the exhaust fan every time the cook top is used to reduce air pollutants and grease build up from cooking, especially if you’re using natural gas
• Keep your stove top clean to prevent carcinogens from burnt on food from being released into the air
• Wash bathroom fan covers quarterly
• Run the bathroom fan for 60 minutes after every shower
• Install a timer switch for bathroom fans. For your safety, if you do not have access to your unit’s electrical breaker switches, please discuss your options with your landlord.
• Take off shoes at the door to significantly reduce pollutants brought into the home.
• If your unit has carpeting, vacuum high traffic areas 1-2 weekly, and lower traffic areas every two weeks. This prevents dirt, debris, and allergens in the air and from settling into carpet fibers.
• Purchase a portable air cleaner (EPA Guide)

For Your Wallet

While all of these upgrades sound great, you might be wondering about the cost. The good news is that there is money available for both landlords and renters in WA state for these types of improvements. If your rental home is serviced by Puget Sound Energy (PSE) you can check their website for available rebates (they have options that apply to renters and landlords). If you live in a multifamily building (this includes condos, townhomes, and other managed properties) you may want to suggest to your landlord considering a retrofit for the building. Available rebates for this type of project are outlined here. The Department of Energy (DOE) also has a compiled list of incentives for renters for home improvement projects. You can find their list of what qualifies as part of President Biden’s Investing in America plan here.

Other rebates available that could apply to your landlord are listed below.

• City of Seattle rebates
• C-PACER (Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy and Resiliency programs are unique to each county and can be a great way for landlords to fund home efficiency upgrades)

When you put in the effort to make your rental more efficient, it leads to a more comfortable home. Not only are you doing your part for the environment, but you are serving yourself and your family as well. For those renters who want to take action and make their home a more environmentally friendly one, these DIY actions can add up to make a positive impact. If you are not sure where to start, don’t hesitate to contact your landlord about upgrades as in most cases they will continue to improve the space after you leave.

The artistic homeowners of this Greenwood bath and kitchen remodel viewed their home as the latest canvas for their artistic expression. Intention and personality shine through all the color, patterns, and small details. As artists, the homeowners’ goals were focused on the long-term livability of their home, showcasing their love of art and color, and limiting their impact on the environment. When Nathan Coons, of Coons Construction LLC, presented the idea of certifying their remodel with Built Green’s new 2023 Remodel certification, there was no hesitation.

Like many other homes in Seattle, their 1960’s split-level home was under-insulated, heated by a central, natural gas furnace with no A/C, and had partial remodels over the various decades. The kitchen remained mostly original while the bathrooms had attempted to be remodeled more recently.

To maintain the home’s livability for the coming decades the homeowners wanted to incorporate changes related to accessibility, indoor air quality (IAQ), and thermal comfort. The primary bath was fitted with a walk-in bathtub and grab bars were installed in the new shower. The low-flow bath and kitchen fixtures and water-smart landscaping was modeled and showed a 45% reduction in the home’s total water use over a standard home. A Moen-Flo Smart Water Monitor and Shutoff provides real-time leak alerts and protects the home from potential water damage. Low VOC and Greenguard Gold certified finishes, and natural Marmoleum flooring were used to support healthier IAQ. Air sealing and electrification were important components of the project scope to improve indoor air quality, comfort, and reduce their carbon emissions.

The homeowners communicated they did not want any walls to be removed, because they were an important part of displaying their art collection. Air sealing and insulating older homes is always a challenge. This is especially true when only a small portion of the home is being opened during the remodel, but it’s one of the most important and cost-effective ways to improve comfort and reduce energy consumption. Adding to this challenge was the 2:12 low-sloped roof. The initial blower door test resulted in 14 Air Changes per Hour (ACH). Coons maximized the insulation throughout the attic and garage ceilings to the current code minimum of R-49. Wherever they could access, air sealing took place, even if it was a single outlet in a room. Blueskin, a self-adhering air and vapor barrier membrane, was used wherever possible, including to create an air separation between the home and the attached garage. At completion, the efforts paid off, the new blower door test was 6.5 ACH, a 53% improvement! The home’s final ACH score may not seem impressive, when compared to the much lower ACH scores that are typically achieved in new construction or down-to-studs remodels, but imagine if this was done to all existing homes!

For this older home to be ready to exist in a future of electrified, zero carbon emission homes the homeowners were not satisfied with just removing gas at the meter. They had gas capped off at the street to ensure this was a gas free property. A Tier III heat-pump water heater and induction cooking range were installed. New wall-mounted heat pump mini-split units supply heating and A/C to the main living space on the upper and lower floors and are zonally controlled for maximum comfort. Bedrooms and bathrooms are supplied by a new forced-air heat-pump air handler and its ducting in the garage was insulated. The original electrical panel was replaced with two new 200-amp panels that are pre-wired with infrastructure to support installation of future solar panels and an EV charging station.

To keep materials out of the landfill and limiting consumption of new resources, reuse became a key strategy of the project. The homeowners spent a lot of time shopping at salvage and reuse suppliers. Elements and materials in the home that still had life and were saved and reused, including light fixtures, toilets, and doors. In the bathrooms two hand painted vanities had previous lives as commode dressers. Excess materials were donated to Habitat for Humanity Snohomish County. Nathan found that recycling debris had the biggest visual impact during construction because they utilized on-site separating of debris. The piles of debris being taken to recycling facilities, versus landfill, were enlightening. He noted the biggest challenge was creating the habit with crew members to separate debris on site, rather than dump it all into one bin. The project recycled 85% of demolition and construction waste. This project benefitted from a lot that provided room to easily facilitate the on-site separation. Nathan intends to maintain the crew’s new habit by source-separating recycling as much as possible of future remodel projects.

This was Coons Construction’s first Built Green certified remodel. Nathan found the keys to success on this project were planning, communication, supervision, and research. He recently presented this project at the 2023 Built Green Conference and told those considering a Built Green remodel, “There is nothing radical in building a green remodel. Most of the Built Green Remodeling requirements are likely to become standard within the industry as the building code is already starting to require these strategies.” He went on to share the resources available to learn about what materials to use, the benefit of using a third-party verifier and Built Green framework, and how networking was a great way to get good supplier and subcontractor referrals. While the initial learning curve required more time to be allocated during the planning stage, getting experience remodeling green homes now would give a remodeler a head start on what will be required to be built in the future.

Author: Sonja O'Claire, Built Green Program Manager

Morning Keynote

Our morning keynote, Roger Ballentine, President of Green Strategies Inc encouraged us to keep doing the work we are doing. He shared insight into the transition to a greener economy and explained that the market will continue to change to value climate solutions. He reminded us of this simple yet powerful message, that despite backlash from professionals, politicians, and sometimes the public, that “The most durable, money-making, value-creating strategy is still at the overlap of profit, planet, and people.” With his words attendees set out for a day of learning from each other and working together to do exactly that.

Session Highlights and Takeaways

This year we had four session tracks, along with the concurrent Built Green Project Basics programming. Conference tracks included Adapting Policy, Code Academy, Innovative Approaches, and Decarbonizing Case Studies. There was too much content to share it all here, but we’ve curated some session highlights to give you a taste.

Washington State Representative Joe Fitzgibbon, Dave Osaki of WA Department of Commerce, and Ryan Donohue of Habitat for Humanity SKKC participated in an engaging panel discussion on the numerous land use updates that passed to support more Middle housing options for Washington residents. Rep. Fitzgibbon shared legislative context and detailed the broad-based and cross-sector support and advocacy efforts that led to all the middle housing initiatives being passed in the 2022-2023 session. He described the intersection of housing, transit, and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Dave Osaki gave practical advice on work Dept. of Commerce is doing to help implement all the middle housing policies enacted. He supplied the numerous middle housing resources developed by their team to help jurisdictions navigate the changes, apply for grants, and access communications training. Ryan Donohue cataloged the benefits and opportunities that the middle housing policies bring to both market-rate and affordable housing builders by, “enabling more housing, in more places, for more people.” The middle housing policies provide more tools for builders and opportunities to build in the right places. Rep. Fitzgibbon closed the panel by expressing that this legislative session took a big step in the right direction, and it should be celebrated, but there is much more work to be done to be successful in meeting both housing and climate change needs in our region. We must work together and continue to advocate for those necessary changes.

Monica Guevara from Emerald Cities Collaborative hosted a panel discussion with James Metoyer, EnerCity Collaborative and Chris Young, CYC Mechanical where they dispensed valuable insights about including and supporting people of color in the just transition to a green economy. They spoke about the importance of facilitating ownership for diverse communities in the construction industry as well as fostering connection and growth to support people of color gaining knowledge and valuable skills as they enter this workforce. The session resulted in meaningful connections between audience members interested in hiring a more diverse workforce and setting them up for success in their careers. “Equity is a journey,” said Monica Guevara in her closing remarks. It is important to keep going no matter where you are starting from; even small steps toward a more equitable business make a difference.

Mason Rolph, of Olympia Community Solar, spoke about their non-profit’s mission to halt the ongoing harm from climate change impacting frontline communities through residential solar installations. Mason shared that the main hurdles that prevents frontline communities from accessing the benefits of residential solar PV are infrastructure barriers, like multifamily and shaded buildings, upfront costs, and regulatory complications. By focusing their installation work on community solar projects they aim to overcome those barriers to the benefit of those who otherwise would not be able to put solar directly on their own roof. He invited those who are interested to visit their website to find more information on how to join their coalition building, stakeholder engagement, or community outreach efforts to advocate for less restrictive solar policy.

In an information-packed session from Talia Dreicer of TC Legend Homes, attendees were encouraged to look at embodied carbon within residential projects with the same emphasis that we currently place on operational efficiency choices. Talia presented her findings on tracking and reducing embodied carbon in multiple TC Legend Homes projects. She stressed the importance of working to create a baseline of embodied carbon for projects, which they do with the BEAM estimator from Builders for Climate Action, and then establishing emissions reduction goals from there. Talia pointed out that pursuing 5-Star certification should not be the only reason builders start the process of tracking and reducing their embodied carbon. By utilizing BEAM and seeing the embodied carbon of individual materials, TC Legend Homes discovered materials that they did not know existed. This information led them to make simple swap outs that resulted in significant embodied carbon reductions in their certified Built Green 5-Star projects. There is a huge opportunity for rapid reductions from simple material changes that the BEAM tool presents when used to compare options.

For contemporary indigenous housing in the PNW, it is essential to develop architecture that is highly responsive to the environment and engages the community it serves. Daniel Glenn, from 7 Directions Architects, presented four case studies of indigenous housing projects that did exactly that. Their firm designs with the tribal idea of the seven generations: three generations of our ancestors, our present generation, and three generations of our descendants. Some aspects of indigenous centered design are having a clustered community or village space to allow for gathering, longhouse inspired multigenerational housing, site analysis to allow for homes to be best suited to their specific climate and place, and including tribal traditions such as building canoes in the formation of the space. Another important step is training tribal members in construction so they can continue with this work in the future. This was an inspiring presentation that featured beautiful and interesting housing projects that serve an essential community in our area.

Practical Applications to Meet and Exceed the 2021 WSEC

Greg Lasher, of BetterBuilt NW, cataloged some of the problems that he has seen through his career as an energy rater when he conducts his testing that are caused by inefficient design. He stressed that integrated design can cost-effectively prevent expensive mistakes and necessary changes later in the build process to meet code or Built Green requirements. HVAC, plumbing, sustainability criteria, and occupant comfort should be considered early in the design process to reap the most rewards. To avoid installation mistakes or ineffective practices trades contractors need to be involved in the design process or charettes so they understand the intent of design or can help see vulnerabilities. Integrated design shifts the amount of design effort towards the beginning of the project prior to when construction documents are created to avoid costly redesigns and in-the-field fixes.

Greg identified the top 2021 WSEC credits to target with design to maximum cost-effectiveness:

1. Heat Pump Water Heater (2 credits)
2. HVAC Ducts Inside (0.5 credit)
3. Compact Water Design (0.5 credit)
4. Waste Water Heat Recovery (0.5 credit)
5. Continuous Exterior Insulation (Base Code or 1.0 credit)

Alex Boetzel, of BetterBuilt NW, further emphasized that designing and building with high performance building techniques from the start is more cost effective for the builder and homeowner, than installing highly efficient, and more expensive, equipment that requires replacement in less than two decades. The new 2021 WSEC includes base code requires continuous exterior insulation that dramatically increases the performance and airtightness of the building’s thermal envelope and increases comfort. Alex explained that an exterior insulation system provides a thermal break, integrates with the air barrier installation, improves the overall wall U/R Value, mitigates condensation risks, and reduces sound transmission compared to standard wall framing assemblies for the life of the building. There are major design considerations and details that need to be considered to avoid unnecessary cost increases. He detailed resources like the upcoming 2021 WSEC Cookbook and WSU Energy Program's trainings and Code Compliance Calculator tools that builders can use to help make the code compliance process easier.

Gary Klein, of Gary Klein and Associates, gave two very interactive and illuminating breakout sessions dedicated to energy efficient, compact plumbing design. He laid out how the antiquated calculations and assumptions, from the 19th century, are still used to design plumbing systems in homes and buildings and do not account for our modern low-flow fixtures. This results in plumbing systems that fail to deliver the four key things people want from their hot water – it’s safe, reliable, reasonably priced, and they don’t have to wait for it. Through life-sized and volunteer-participated demonstrations Gary showed the common flaws in conventional plumbing design that leads to higher energy and water bills and complaints about long wait times and lack of water pressure. For hot water to be delivered to a tap it requires two times the volume in the pipe, including the cold water sitting in the pipe and the hot water that comes from the water heater. All the hot water that flows into the pipe that is not used represents wasted energy and money.

During the building’s operation annual water bill savings can be $1000-$3,600. These changes also decrease energy use from hot water by 20-30% by reducing the energy lost from hot water that never reaches the tap. The forthcoming 2021 WSEC will have energy efficiency credits related to compact plumbing design that lowers upfront costs of building homes. Implementing this innovative approach will be a win-win for builders and homeowners.

Built Green Project Basics was a specialty programming that was designed for those getting started with green building or high-performance building techniques. Cybil Tribie, of BEE Consulting, gave an overview of the Built Green certification and verification process and the benefits for projects that achieve certification. Josh Salinger, of Birdsmouth Design-Build, provided three sessions covering building science 101 content related to thermal envelope performance, HVAC installation details, and air sealing. You can look forward to offering a new variety of Built Green Project Basics topics being covered in future years of the conference.

Throughout the day conference attendees connected with each other to share stories and ideas and engaged with vendors, suppliers, and service providers in our Sponsors Expo to learn about how they could further enhance their Built Green projects. At lunch Sonja O’Claire, the Built Green Program Manager, presented the winners of the 2023 Built Green Hammer Awards. Then after a long day of learning, attendees enjoyed a mixer where they could continue their conversations, share ideas, and connect with each other over drinks.

We hope everyone who came to the conference learned something new, connected with friends, and walked away feeling inspired. We look forward to seeing you next year!